Southern California -- this just in

Teen fatally shot while apparently playing Russian roulette [Updated]

May 23, 2010 | 11:26
pm

A 15-year-old girl was fatally shot in a Mid-City residence Sunday night in an incident that Los Angeles police believe could be related to a game of Russian roulette, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation.

Police and paramedics responded to a reported shooting about 5:45 p.m. in the 1800 block of Wellington Road. When paramedics arrived, they found a 15-year-old with a gunshot wound to her back, authorities said.

[Updated at 10:15 a.m. May 24: Coroner's officials have identified the girl as Alexis Wallace and listed the death as a homicide in their weekly report. She died of a single gunshot wound to her back, according to coroner's records.]

The girl, who was not immediately identified pending notification of family, was taken to a hospital, where she was later pronounced dead. Sources familiar with the case said that she and a teenage boy may have been playing Russian roulette with a pistol but that the boy, who was holding the gun, believed he had taken the bullets out.

When the girl had gotten up to leave, the boy pointed the gun at her and pressed the trigger, not realizing that a round was still in the chamber, authorities said.

Police said it was not immediately clear if the weapon was a semi-automatic handgun or a revolver, the gun most associated with Russian roulette, in which players spin the chamber and then pull the trigger with the muzzle of the gun pointed at their head.

-- Andrew Blankstein

Map shows location of Wallace's shooting death as well as 83 homicides within one mile since January 2007. Click for more details on the Homicide Report.